Mars rover continues to exceed JPL's expectations

By Daniel Siegal

Pasadena Sun

Thanks to engineering ingenuity and software updates done from across the universe, NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has reached a new exploration site 7 1/2 years after it first landed on Mars.

Dave Lavery, program executive for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, said Opportunity’s unexpected durability gave the science team a whole new environment to investigate, the crater Endeavor.

“This is like having a brand-new landing site for our veteran rover,” Lavery said during a press conference Thursday. “It is a remarkable bonus that comes from being able to rove on Mars with well-built hardware that lasts.”

Opportunity was expected to travel only a kilometer or two on the red planet. It has now traveled more than 30 kilometers, Lavery said.

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